Review: Choir Boy, Stratford East ****

The cast of Choir Boy, Stratford East (a Bristol Old Vic production)

review: Choir Boy, Stratford East

Tarell Alvin McCraney’s award-winning play has its press night at Stratford East this week, bringing a soulful and high-energy exploration of identity to one of London’s most vital stages. Directed by Nancy Medina, this production, originally staged at the Bristol Old Vic, is a vibrant coming-of-age story told through the visceral lens of Black spiritual music.

The play is set within the hallowed and wood-panelled halls of the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys. This fictional American institution is named after the pioneering African American surgeon and “Father of the Blood Bank,” a man whose legacy of excellence creates a pressurised environment for the students. For fifty years, the school has groomed “strong, ethical Black men,” and it is this history that creates the high bar of expectations the boys must meet while finding their own way.

At the heart of this tension is Pharus (Terique Jarrett), a new scholarship student who is equally desperate to celebrate his heritage through reclaiming spirituals as he is to hide his sexuality. Bobby (Rabi Kondé), a legacy student and the headmaster’s nephew, clashes against him as he tries to prove he is worthy of his inherited leadership. Headmaster Marrow (Daon Broni) is driven to maintain the prestige and rigour of his institution but our sympathy for him grows as the play moves on and we see he is more than just an enforcer of rules.

The boys are also dealing with their own private weights. Bobby is a boy grieving his late mother, and a particularly poignant moment occurs when the boys perform Motherless Child. The exceptional singing acts as a tremendous emotional engine, and it is here we see the brotherhood truly supporting Bobby in his grief.

The play also includes a spoken section exploring the history of spirituals and the debate over whether they were coded messages of resistance. This dialogue is intellectually vital, as some characters find it deeply confronting to think the “code” might not be true, though the sequence runs slightly too long and drops the pace.

The Set and Costume Designer, Max Johns, has done a great job of bringing this world to life. The transition into the dorms is clever and the way the showers are revealed is incredibly effective. This physical environment complements the choreography, which captures the slightly unformed and gangly style of teenage boys who are still growing into their own bodies.

The audience were spell-bound throughout, especially in the more delicate and distressing parts of the play. Returning to Stratford East is always a highlight. A musical at this very venue topped my list of 2024 Red Bus Highlights as the best of the year, and Choir Boy certainly lives up to that high bar. It is a poignant and deeply human piece of theatre that honours the weight of history while looking clearly at the present.